Anton Walkes relished the chance to get forward from left-back in our Under-21s’ clash with Manchester City on Friday.

It’s a role he’s played before – notably in the side that reached the FA Youth Cup semi-finals last season – and the 18-year-old confirmed he was happy to do a job for the team in that position again as we came up against a powerful City side in the Barclays Under-21 Premier League.

“It’s good experience for me and it’s no problem at all to play at left-back,” said Anton, who launched a handful of attacks down his flank throughout the game, one of which almost led to a goal as he found Shayon Harrison in the box, whose cut-back was sent over the bar by Emmanuel Sonupe.

“I was able to get forward and I was glad I could show my energy and my passing ability to find the wide players and the nine. It was good to go and link up with them when I went forward too.

“Defensively, though, as a team I think we dealt with things quite well, apart from a few times when maybe we could have done things a bit quicker.

“I think we have to voice ourselves a bit better out on the pitch and make sure we tell each other to get back so we can see the game out.”

Unfortunately, despite Christian Maghoma’s 90th-minute header putting us 3-2 in front, we were unable to clinch the points on Friday as City grabbed a stoppage time leveller through Bersant Celina.

Individual errors had come into play earlier in the game – and that’s something Anton says the players are keen to address in training.

“I felt we dominated the game from kick-off, imposed ourselves very well and played in our style – it’s just unfortunate about the result and I’m very disappointed we only got a draw,” he added.

“There were definitely a few things we can learn from and look to improve on in training. We also needed to impose ourselves a bit more in their box and be a bit more ruthless.”